The baby was left under the seat on an empty Kwun Tong Line train. Photo: SCMP

The body of a newborn baby with the umbilical cord and placenta still attached was found by a cleaner on an empty train at Yau Ma Tei MTR station yesterday morning and declared dead half an hour later.

The 53-year-old cleaner found the infant wrapped in layers of clothing within a plastic bag that had been placed inside a cloth recycling bag. It was left under the seat on an empty Kwun Tong Line train that had stopped on a Tiu King Leng-bound platform.

Police were called at about 11.30am and the baby was taken to the Kwong Wah Hospital, where it was certified dead at about 12pm.

The gender of the infant is not known.

Detectives from Yau Tsim Mong district are reviewing surveillance footage from the MTR to try to find out who left the infant on the train.

An autopsy will be carried out to determine the cause of death.

It comes after a case that made headlines in December, when a woman claimed her six-month-old girl had been abducted. Mother Ng Tin-yan was later arrested and charged with one count of preventing the lawful burial of a body. She is still in custody, awaiting trial.

It is alleged that Ng invented the story to cover up the accidental death of her child. She allegedly discarded the baby's body in a rubbish bin at the rear staircase of San Po Kong Mansion, on Choi Hung Road, where she lived.

More than 100 police officers had the grim task of combing through 8,000 tonnes of rubbish at the Tseung Kwan O landfill but the body was never found.

In another case, in May last year, a baby's body was found floating in waters off North Point pier by a fisherman. And in April last year, a cleaner found the body of a newborn boy with the umbilical cord still attached. It had been dumped at a rubbish collection point at Sau Fung House, Chai Wan. The identities of both infants remain unknown.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Cleaner finds dead baby on train